Phase separation in a chaotic flow
Statistical Mechanics
2009-10-31 v2
Abstract
The phase separation between two immiscible liquids advected by a bidimensional velocity field is investigated numerically by solving the corresponding Cahn-Hilliard equation. We study how the spinodal decomposition process depends on the presence -or absence- of Lagrangian chaos. A fully chaotic flow, in particular, limits the growth of domains and for unequal volume fractions of the liquids, a characteristic exponential distribution of droplet sizes is obtained. The limiting domain size results from a balance between chaotic mixing and spinodal decomposition, measured in terms of Lyapunov exponent and diffusivity constant, respectively.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0010236,
title = {Phase separation in a chaotic flow},
author = {Ludovic Berthier and Jean-Louis Barrat and Jorge Kurchan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0010236},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Minor changes - Version accepted for publication - Physical Review Letters